Tuesday, March 1, 2011

As I mentioned yesterday, we had a bit of a fender bender Saturday. We were both a little exhausted by the day but, still needed dinner. With no car we couldn't just run out to eat so, Matt whipped up this tasty sauce & served it over a half package of gnocchi we had lingering in the fridge.
His inspiration for the sauce was a leftover half package of Philadelphia Cooking Cream*. Have you tried this stuff yet? It's got the flavor of cream cheese but the texture is more like that of mascarpone cheese. We bought it to use in our smoked salmon chowder & it made the chowder even better than the original version (richer, creamier) plus it incorporates so easily. After that success, Matt said he wanted to experiment with it in pasta sauce. It added a nice bit of tang that you wouldn't get from just cream & a luxurious thickness. I think this might be the perfect cream cheese to use in frosting, no waiting for it to reach room temp!

Melt butter in a small saucepan. Add the garlic, red pepper, black pepper & basil. Sauté for about a minute. Stir in the tomato sauce & vodka. Whisk in the cooking cream until incorporated. Heat through. Serve with your favorite pasta.

Makes 2 - 3 servings

* We did not receive the Philadelphia Cooking Cream for free or receive any sort of payment for writing about it. We just happened to pick it up at the store & liked it so, thought we'd share our thoughts about it with you.

I love creamy Vodka tomato pasta sauce! There's something about alcohol that brings out good flavors in tomatoes. Sorry to hear about the fender bender, those events are always stressful. I hope you have your car back soon.

So back to that salmon chowder; did you sub the "cooking cream" for the half & half? Completely, partly? On the fence whether to try that product but the convenience of it, stability with heat may make it try-worthy. Thanks!